UNDERSTANDING STONE FLOORING

Congratulations on choosing natural stone as your floor covering. Stone flooring has always been considered the highest quality product that can be put on your floor. The natural color selections available are limitless and the product quality is virtually lifetime.

The following explanations will enable you to understand up front, what to expect from your stone floor tile materials and your material supplier.

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COLOR

Stone Floor Tile, Slate, Travertine, Marble and Granite, etc. whether it comes from the United States, China, India, Spain, Italy or Brazil, etc is a 100% natural product that is quarried directly from the earth. Quarried stone varies in color from block to block due to blocks coming from different places and depths in the quarry. This causes a natural color variation of the product. The color varies slightly in some colors and varies extremely in other colors. For this reason the customer has a choice of having the tile blended during installation, sorted during installation so different areas may have different shades, or just installed as it comes from the crate. The most common application is to install it as it comes from the crate. A better application is blending all of the crates prior to application. It is highly recommended that all pallets of tile be blended prior to installation. Sorting the tiles is the best application but is quite labor intensive and costly. Discuss this with your applicator to determine which application is best for you.

Slate Floor Tile is so totally irregular in color that at least four or more full size pieces of the tile must be viewed to be able to determine what the finished floor color range will look like after installation.

Travertine is also quite irregular in color and surface texture. Not only is it irregular because of its natural color variation in the quarry itself but also because in the case of filled tiles, the fill color can vary from lot to lot. Filled travertine tiles can vary in color also because of the amount of fill necessary to create a smooth tile. If there are many and large holes to be filled the fill color can overpower the natural color of the stone.

Polished Marble will vary in color because of the irregularities of the quarry as well as the quality and consistency of the finishing polish. All expertly installed finished polished marble floors are polished after installation. This is an extra cost and charge over the cost of the installed floor. There are established companies whose full time occupation is polishing stone floors. General irregularity due to polish consistency is not a flaw that can create a claim for reimbursement from the material supplier.

SIZE, THICKNESS AND SURFACE TEXTURE

Stone floor tiles are machine made but not to the precise dimensions you might be led to expect. They are still basically handmade. Tiles vary in length, width, and thickness. There also will likely be some squareness irregularities. Depending on the stone used the irregularities can be quite extreme. This does create an installation problem but it is overcome with the thickness used of the thinset cement adhesive, size of the grout joints and moving different size tiles about by the installer. A good installer knows to expect these problems and will overcome them. They are natural flaws of the product and are not subject to claims for reimbursement of extra expense involved in installation.

Stone floor tiles are sold based on an installed square foot measurement. In the case of slate floor tile, the size of the actual tile is a metric measurement that is slightly smaller than 12", 16", 18" etc. The width of the grout used is considered to be part of the square foot measurement when tiles are sold on a square foot basis.

The surface texture of Slate is highly irregular due to its being cleft rather than sawn from a quarried block. This thickness irregularity is somewhat decreased when the product is purchased calibrated or gauged. With calibrated or gauged tile there is still a considerable variation in thickness. The words calibrated and gauged do not mean that the slates are all the same thickness, just that one side has been ground or smoothed off. This calibration process is done either by honing or grinding or cutting and grinding the tile. Some producers calibrate with a smooth grind and some calibrate with a saw tooth appearance. It is just the system used by the particular manufacturer to calibrate the product.

Random size slate flagstones vary in size and thickness depending on the color chosen. Some varieties of slate shale much thicker than others. This will affect how much coverage can be expected per crate. The supplier can only estimate the coverage you will achieve. The supplier does not guarantee its estimate of coverage to be accurate. The random size pieces themselves will vary in thickness from 3/8" to 1 1/4". The size of the pieces attempt as much as possible to be no smaller than a 15" long dimension. The maximum long dimension is 45". Random slate is sold only on a full factory crate basis 2000# or 2200# based on the supplier. Returns if subject to return are accepted only on a full factory crate basis.

HONING AND POLISHING

Honing is a grinding and sanding process applied to stone tiles. Most flooring tiles are honed to achieve a smooth top surface. With the exception of slate which keeps it cleft surface, the honing process is used either as the finish product or that which is done prior to polishing. In the case of slate and quartzite one side is honed to achieve the desired approximate thickness and the other side may be honed to achieve a smooth top surface. Honing does not mean polishing and a honed tile will not have a shiny surface.

Tiles are honed with circular grinding and polishing pads. There will be some tiles marked with a circular swirling appearance. This swirling is to be expected. If these tiles are bothersome to you, instruct the installer sort them out and use them where they are less noticeable to you. This is a problem typical of honed stone tiles and is not a flaw for which you can expect replacement tiles from the supplier.

Marble, Travertine, and Granite, etc. can also be finely polished to a smooth shiny surface. As per the notation in color variances above, this polishing process is a hand process and there will be variations in the quality of the polishing from tile to tile. This is why you should plan to have your floor re-polished after the installation of the tile.

STAINING

All stone flooring products are subject to staining if anything is spilled on them. It is particularly noticeable on the lighter color products.

SEALING, COLOR ENHANCERS AND GROUT RELEASES

All stone flooring should be sealed to prevent staining after installation. Color enhancers are recommended for interior use only. Grout release should be used prior to grouting slate tiles.

BREAKAGE AND COVERAGE

Stone floor tiles are shipped long distances by ocean freight and truck. It is normal to expect at least 5% breakage prior to the breakage expected during de-palletizing and installation. Tiles are sold based on the producers count marked on the crated pallets. The material supplier allows no allowance or credit for breakage.

Depending on the tile used, you will need to buy extra tile to compensate for cutting as well. Your installer should be able to make an appropriate estimate of quantity required.

STAINING, BLEEDING AND RUSTING

Prior to installation, slate tiles are not washed or cleaned. They are just like they come from the quarry. They will be covered with dust and dirt and saw dust from application. This residue must be washed off with a hose and scrub brush after installation.

Stone being a natural product does not color bleed. Some slate tiles have a rust on their surface i.e. Multicolor Blend. These rusty slates will continue to rust when wet and the rust will stain wherever it touches. Staining of some colors from this is a natural characteristic of the stone and is to be expected. For this reason it is not recommended to use rusty type slates as pool copings.

RETURNING EXTRA TILES

Special ordered tiles are in most cases not returnable. All returnable items will be assessed a substantial return or handling charge. Broken or chipped tiles and cherry picked tiles are not returnable. If more than a pallet of tile is returned, the full pallet returned must be an unopened factory crate.